


One of Us

by wakeupkid



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-17
Updated: 2016-01-17
Packaged: 2018-05-14 11:59:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,152
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5743057
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wakeupkid/pseuds/wakeupkid
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For better or worse, Finn and Rey each grew up having to make it on their own. Now, they have to figure out how best to raise the next generation of Jedi.</p>
<p>"Finn had been watching intently from his seat a few yards away, his fingers clasped tightly in his lap, his right leg bouncing speedily almost as if out of his control. Finn, who had been whispering suggested next moves for the youngling under his breath, had realized what was about to happen exactly two seconds before the youngling had."</p>
            </blockquote>





	One of Us

**Author's Note:**

> -References to Star Wars: Before the Awakening
> 
> -This is my first stab at a TFA fic. I'm still working on getting a firm grasp on the characters and who they are in different situations. I care deeply about characterization and faithful depictions of characters. So please let me know (gently, I'm sensitive) if anything ever feels off :)

The youngling fell to the ground. Her body showed no signs of life beyond the slight trembling brought on by the labor of her lungs working to take in and expel oxygen. The staff, now hanging limp at the side of her similarly trembling sparing partner, had collided brutally with her left temple, buckling her knees, sending her tiny frame to the floor.

Finn had been watching intently from his seat a few yards away, his fingers clasped tightly in his lap, his right leg bouncing speedily almost as if out of his control. Finn, who had been whispering suggested next moves for the youngling under his breath, had realized what was about to happen exactly two seconds before the youngling had. He had leapt to his feet before the blow hit, but both had been powerless to stop it. Finn was moving toward the little one even before she had completely collapsed, but his progress was almost immediately halted by a firm grip on his wrist. 

“Finn, wait,” Rey urged, applying subtle pressure on Finn’s wrist, attempting to ease him back to his seat beside her. “She has to learn to make it on her own.”

Finn’s mind was suddenly bombarded with images of FN-2003, Slip, his old stormtrooper comrade from fire-team. Slip, who always seemed to fall behind. Slip, who was never quite fast enough. Slip, who he always went back for until…

***

“Why did you go back for FN-2003?” Captain Phasma had asked all those years ago in the briefing room after yet another simulation where Finn had gone back for Slip. 

“He’s one of us,” Finn had immediately responded.

“This is not the first time you’ve helped him,” Phasma had continued. “Your instructors have noted multiple occasions where you’ve been assisting him in various duties. Why are you doing this?”

“We’re only as strong as our weakest link, Captain.”

“I agree.”

“Thank you, Captain.”

“I want it to stop.”

“Captain?” Those words had jarred and confused him.

“We are only as strong a our weakest link, FN-2187. While you believe you are attempting to strengthen that weak link, I assure you that is not what you are actually doing. Rather than fixing the problem, you are allowing it to persist. As a result you are, in fact, weakening the whole. Further, you are weakening _yourself_.”

He had tried to protest, to express his respectful disagreement and insist that sometimes the only way to learn was to be taught, that sometimes even the strongest among us fall and need help to stand again, but Captain Phasma had pressed on.

“FN-2003 must stand or fall on his own. If he stands, the Order is strengthened. If he falls, the Order is spared his weakness. Am I understood?”

“Yes, Captain.”

***

Rey’s voice brought him back to the present. “She has to learn to stand on her own.”

Finn looked at Rey, this woman, this _Jedi_ , abandoned on Jakku, a place he felt it an overstatement to call a planet. He always loved her inner toughness, born from a childhood and early adulthood spent almost completely in solitude, on a nearly barren world, scavenging for her next meal, facing and fighting off bandits and those who would take advantage of her seeming vulnerabilities. She had made herself strong because she had to. Because she had been without the too often taken for granted protection of a parent, of a family, of anyone that would clear obstacles from her path, not because they believed her not strong enough to clear them herself, but because they wanted to spare her pain and unnecessary suffering. Because they cared. Because they wanted her to know she was not and would never be alone.

Finn gently twisted his wrist, lifting his arm slowly until his hand met hers. He squeezed her hand and smiled. “She does have to learn to stand on her own. But she doesn’t have to do it alone.” Finn tugged on Rey’s hand, pulling her up from her seat so that they were eye to eye. “It doesn’t have to be like it was. She has us.” He pressed his lips to her forehead. “She’s one of us.” They looked into each other’s eyes. Rey intertwined their fingers and the corner of her mouth ticked upward just enough for Finn to know that she had understood his meaning.

Together, the two of them hurried to the youngling still prone on the ground. Finn dropped to his knees at her side, brushing away a thick tendril of her hair from where it had come to rest on her face. “Sweet pea,” Finn whispered, cupping her round face. The little one’s eyes flickered open. Finn felt Rey’s breath rush past him, the tension leaving her body from where she hovered above them both.

“Daddy?” she breathed. “Mommy?”

“We’re here, Kenli,” Rey answered. “Can you sit up on your own?”

“Mmm hmm,” Kenli moaned, rolling to her side and propping herself up on her elbow before pushing herself into a sitting position. “Will you help me up?”

“Always,” Finn replied, slipping his hands under her arms and lifting her to her feet as he rose to stand.

Kenli rubbed the growing lump on her head and looked up at her parents, her brown eyes brimming with tears. “I should have ducked. I’ll get it next time.”

Finn and Rey shared a quick glance, pride evident in their eyes. “Of course you will, sweet pea,” Rey affirmed.

“How’s your head feel?” Finn asked, patting Kenli’s puffy ponytail. “Do you want to take a break?”

“It hurts, but I’m okay. I want to try again,” Kenli said, her back straightening. “I know I can do it. I saw Mommy do it once. I just have to…” she paused, scrunching up her little face to think, “anticipate!” She looked to her parents for assurance, “That’s the word, right?”

“That’s the one!” Finn said, giving Kenli a high five.

“Alright, then. We’ll let you get back to it,” Rey chimed with a smile.

Finn and Rey were back in their seats in time to see Kenli brush off her robes, pick up her staff from the ground, and reset her footing. Ready. Just before the Jedi Master overseeing the training called for the sparing session to begin anew, Kenli looked over at her parents, flashed a smile, stretched her arm out toward them and raised her thumb.

Finn and Rey, laughing, returned the gesture.

“You’re right,” Rey chuckled, leaning over and bumping Finn with her shoulder. “She’s definitely one of us.” Rey kissed Finn’s shoulder and rested her head there. Finn couldn’t stop his smile.

It was in moments like these, Finn thought to himself, when he felt truly a part of something, of someone, that he knew he was experiencing what he had always wanted but thought he would never have: a family.

He was one of an “ _Us_. _”_

 

 

 

 


End file.
